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A proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder

April 18, 2007 /

Abstract:

It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One possible objection to this proposal remains–that happiness is not negatively valued. However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically irrelevant.

From: JME.

(via Robot Wisdom)

Guerilla neuroscience documentaries online

November 21, 2006 /

via Mind Hacks:

Obscured TV is a website that is streaming old TV documentaries. They don’t have permission to do it, but they believe the programmes are too educational to be left gathering dust in a TV company warehouse. As they have so many classic psychology and neuroscience documentaries in their archives, I can only agree.

Just a word of warning if you’re skeptical about these sorts of things – it requires that you install some ActiveX plugin, which is seems painless to install and works OK, but only works in Explorer.

If you’re happy with doing that, have a look at this page which has a list of ‘human interest’ documentaries – largely taken from UK TV.

7 Seconds is a stunning documentary on densely amnesic patients Clive Wearing who has been the subject of some ground-breaking research on the neuropsychology of memory, but also inspires some profound thoughts on identity and remembering.

The Real Rainman, My Family and Autism and Make me Normal profile a number of remarkable individuals with autism, and Teenage Tourettes Camp is a compelling documentary on some UK children with Tourette syndrome who go to a camp in the USA especially for children affected by the disorder (it is both touching and wickedly funny in places).

Another page with documentaries from the Horizon series, includes The Man Who Lost His Body, a documentary about a man who loses his sense of proprioception – the ability to sense where your limbs are, and God on the Brain which contains a memorable scene where Michael Persinger attempts to give Richard Dawkins a religious experience by stimulating his temporal lobes with magnetic fields.

Get them while they’re online, as the site probably won’t stay up for long!

Link to ‘people’ documentaries.
Link to Horizon documentaries.

Seeing money can change behavior

November 20, 2006 /

The AP reports:

Kathleen Vohs, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues, conducted a series of nine experiments in which people were asked to do puzzles or other tasks and the behavior of people exposed to money was compared to others who were not prompted to think about it.

The two groups acted differently, the researchers report in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

“The mere presence of money changes people,” Vohs said. “The effect can be negative, it can be positive. Exposure to money, or the concept of money, elevates a sense of self-sufficiency,” and can make people less social.

Full Story: Fox New

New York Plans to Make Gender Personal Choice

November 8, 2006 /

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery.

Under the rule being considered by the city’s Board of Health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and asserting that their proposed change would be permanent.

Applicants would have to have changed their name and shown that they had lived in their adopted gender for at least two years, but there would be no explicit medical requirements.

continued via the New York Times

Just fyi, Canada Alberta is willing to trade Toronto for New York. In fact, we’ll give you most of Ontario in exchange…

Fell back for now, part-time on Technoccult

September 13, 2006 /

Klint has been nice enough to allow me to continue posting bits of occult novelty to his wonderful site here, as I’ve since discontinued Occult Design in favour of pursuing business endeavours here in Edmonton and my work in the field of visual communication design.

But a happy hello to everyone and for today, I just wanted to drop these tidbits I came across this morning via Boing Boing, in case anyone here missed it:

Can hearing voices in your head be a good thing?

Psychologists have launched a study to find out why some people who hear voices in their head consider it a positive experience while others find it distressing.

The University of Manchester investigation – announced on World Hearing Voices Day (Thursday, 14th September) – comes after Dutch researchers found that many healthy members of the population there regularly hear voices.

Although hearing voices has traditionally been viewed as ‘abnormal’ and a symptom of mental illness, the Dutch findings suggest it is more widespread than previously thought, estimating that about 4% of the population could be affected.

continued via EurekAlert

As well as:

Google Books promotes banned books for Banned Books Week

Google Book Search and the American Library Association have teamed up to offer searchable indices and library links to banned books, in celebration of Banned Books Week (Sept 23-30). Included in the catalog are 1984, Lolita, Lord of the Flies, the Great Gatsby, The Color Purple, Brave New World, Naked Lunch, Invisible Man, Cats Cradle, and many other titles that made me a better person for having read them.

Link

And this little graphical gem: the Major Arcana of the tarot as interpreted by John Coulthart… like traffic signs to the oracular road of life.

Human capacity for altruism emerges as early as 18 months of age

March 5, 2006 /

AP reports:

Oops, the scientist dropped his clothespin. Not to worry a wobbly toddler raced to help, eagerly handing it back. The simple experiment shows the capacity for altruism emerges as early as 18 months of age.

AP: Roots of Altruism Show in Babies’ Helping Hands

(via Great News Network)

US army to produce Mid-East comic

February 28, 2006 /

Interesting psyop:

An advertisement on the US government’s Federal Business Opportunities website is inviting applications for someone to develop an “original comic book series”.

“In order to achieve long-term peace and stability in the Middle East, the youth need to be reached,” the ad says.

BBC: US army to produce Mid-East comic

So what do you have to do to find happiness?

February 19, 2006 /

Long article on happiness science:

One thing makes a striking difference. When two American psychologists studied hundreds of students and focused on the top 10% “very happy” people, they found they spent the least time alone and the most time socialising. Psychologists know that increasing the number of social contacts a miserable person has is the best way of cheering them up. When Jean-Paul Sartre wrote “hell is other people”, the arch-pessimist of existentialist angst was wrong.

Times Online: So what do you have to do to find happiness?

(via Notes From Somewhere Bizarre)

The Future of Sex

April 24, 2003 /

Interesting column at Better Humans by James J. Hughes. A biological approach to thinking about love and sex:

Not just lust, but the amorphous ball of feeling called “love” itself is a biochemical phenomenon, amenable to manipulation. In Anatomy of Love, anthropologist Helen Fisher summarizes research arguing that love is composed of three biochemical process. The first process, driven by testosterone, is lust. The second process, infatuation, is controlled by dopamine, norepinephrine and phenylethylamine — amphetamine-like chemicals that produce feelings of euphoria. The lust and infatuation chemicals peak after a year, and for the lucky few relationships that survive their decline a new biochemical response emerges based on oxytocin, vasopression and endorphins, which produce feelings of intimacy, trust and affection.

Better Humans: The Future of Sex

(via Three River Tech Review)

Clockwork Orange Inspired by Real Life CIA Mind Control Experiments

October 19, 2002 /

Looks like Clockwork Orange author Anthony Burgess was involved with the CIA’s MK-ULTRA project:

According to the anonymous source, Burgess became involved with the CIA while working as a Colonial Service education officer in Malaya in the 1950s.

There he became a party to trials for a mind-control process designed to trigger emotional responses in the brain using pain and pleasure ? the inspiration, it is claimed, for the chilling Ludovico Technique in A Clockwork Orange.

The Independent: CIA mind-control trials revealed as secret inspiration behind ‘A Clockwork Orange’

(via Post Atomic)

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